


Hospitality

by captainmazzic (lordtarantula)



Series: The Sith Tribunal AU [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Dark Side Positivity, Gen, Jedi Critical, M/M, references to past off-screen torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21588475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordtarantula/pseuds/captainmazzic
Summary: Some time after the Shadow Imperium's Enclave, Jedi Master Burdock Heilon has accompanied Darth Aranea and Darth Mordeo on Adrestin's ship for a short while. His presence isn't entirely appreciated.Very short little thing I wrote when I couldn't sleep last night, wherein we get to see a little bit of Adrestin's (controlled) intolerance for Jedi he doesn't like.Takes place after chapter 46 of Opening Dialogue and after the events of Establishing an Accord (naturally, as that's where we have Heilon and Mordeo's story).
Series: The Sith Tribunal AU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/990054
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Hospitality

Mordeo lay in the plush bed, his head nestled in pillows and a soft blanket draped up to his shoulders over his skinny frame. His breathing was soft and shallow, his pulse steady and slow. He hadn’t stirred when Heilon had waved open the door, nor did he wake as he approached the bed and knelt beside its edge. Lord Belus must have set him into some sort of healing trance. Morichro, perhaps, but that should have been impossible – it was supposed to be a technique reserved only for the Light Side. But Heilon had seen much in these Sith that should have been reserved for the Light Side of the Force.

And the little Sith sleeping so quietly before him now had been a startling case in point. Darth Mordeo had murdered no one in his years of life, nor even caused anyone pain. His power in the Force was not strong, unless it was connected to stone and mineral, metal and earth. His strength had been only such to forge a strong connection with the flow and pull of a planet’s subtle shifting, and he had never even spared a thought towards using his limited power for anything other than study and assisting in the safety of his fellow Sith.

Not even when Jedi Master Burdock Heilon had barreled his way into Mordeo’s life, cutting off his legs below the knee and subjecting him to mental torture for weeks on end, all for the purpose of apprehending an escaped Sith assassin that Mordeo had never even possessed any knowledge about.

But all of that was in the past, and Heilon had taken it upon himself to correct his errors if he could. It hadn’t gone well so far, as Mordeo didn’t particularly want anything to do with him. But Heilon was nothing if not dedicated and persistent, so he had accompanied Mordeo along with Darth Aranea to this rendezvous with Darth Belus for some unknown reason. It probably had to do with the mysterious Shadow Imperium, but Heilon was not party to the details. He was, after all, the enemy. His current situation of being forced into an ambassadorial role notwithstanding.

He sighed and reached a hand out to brush a stray tendril away from Mordeo’s sleeping face. Heilon was not the only one caught up in affairs he didn’t understand – Mordeo knew such situations far more intimately than Heilon could ever have. Nor was Mordeo well equipped to deal with the stress and strain associated with the world-shaking events transpiring all around him, and it was beginning to show. He ran the wormy tendril through his fingers before tucking it behind Mordeo’s ear.

He had not heard the door opening silently behind him several moments ago, nor had he heard the soft scrape of scaled foot against the floor. Lord Belus loomed up behind him, his dark, heady presence blossoming around him like a fiery flower in the Force.

Heilon’s breath caught for a moment in his throat, and he turned to face the giant Sith Lord.

Belus’s face was a mask of horns and scales. Even on the best days, Heilon had a difficult time reading him, and that was only partly because Belus’s shields in the Force were stronger than durasteel. His head tilted to one side as he regarded the Jedi Master, and his voice was a contemplative hiss backed with a subtle menace.

“…You care for him.”

“I…” Heilon hesitated. It was not the Jedi way to develop attachments, much less ones to a Sith – no matter how shockingly innocuous that Sith had ended up being. But another glance down at Mordeo’s sleeping face, finally relaxed out of the perpetual scowl that seemed to cloud his features in his waking moments, and Heilon couldn’t bring himself to deny it again. It wouldn’t have done him any good, regardless – Darth Belus had proven time and again he had the ability to see through whatever self-deceptions and half-truths Heilon had been trying to tell himself. And while Lord Belus had demonstrated a seemingly infinite patience with Mordeo’s prickly personality, he had been far less charitable towards Heilon. He sighed and ran a hand over his eyes. “…Yes. I do.”

Adrestin crossed his arms and leaned against the jamb of the door, a single one of his four eyebrows raised. “Interesting.”

Heilon shifted warily beneath his harsh stare, both because of his discomfort with his just-stated admission and because of Lord Belus’s intense scrutiny. He could feel the Sith Lord’s presence prod at his own, testing the veracity of his three-word statement and pushing inexorably into his mind for a more detailed impression of his thoughts and feelings. Heilon allowed him – not that he really had any power to actually make the decision to do so or not. It was Lord Belus’s ship they were on, in Sith Empire space, on a Sith-held planet. And Heilon _had_ insisted on remaining with Lord Aranea and Mordeo, with the caveat that he submit to Lord Belus’s authority in every possible way. So he bore Belus’s mental investigation with as much stoic patience as he could. 

“…Interesting.” Belus’s word merely echoed his last, but his heavy, invasive presence withdrew from Heilon’s mind. He brushed by Heilon without another glance and crouched down beside Mordeo’s bed. Heilon could feel him stretch out with the Force, gently caressing the clammy aura of the skinny Thradian Sith as he slept on. Belus pulled a second blanket over him, smoothing out the wrinkles as he tucked it over Mordeo’s shoulder and then retreated back to the threshold of the room. 

Heilon’s curiosity got the better of him. “He asked you for this?”

A single nod from Belus. “Yes. He finally felt safe enough with my presence to realize I would extend my protection to him, if he chose to stay.” 

“That doesn’t explain why he asked you to put him into a Morichro trance. That ability should only be accessible to users of the Light Side of the Force.”

Lord Belus snorted, his sidelong glance full of derision. “Evidently, not.” He waved a hand lightly towards Mordeo’s prone form. “It is a very light form of Morichro. Designed only to give him an extended, dreamless sleep. He will only wake when I release him.” 

“How long?”

“As long as it takes. Fifteen hours. Twenty. Twenty-five. It is hardly any of your business.” 

Heilon chose to ignore the dig. “Why did he ask for this?”

“Also hardly your business. But I sense you will pester until you receive answers.” Adrestin sighed and nodded towards Mordeo. “He asked for assistance because he could not sleep on his own. Not restfully, at any rate.” 

Heilon frowned. “Why not?”

Again Lord Belus raised one single eyebrow, and his voice grew hard and quiet. “Because certain recent memories haunt him, Master Heilon. Dreams.” 

“Dreams.” Heilon flinched. “…Of what I did to him.” 

“Yes.”

His guilt at torturing the little geologist, simply because he had been a Sith in the wrong place at the wrong time, flowered inside Heilon’s gut. He had determined to make it right, weeks upon weeks ago, but had made little headway. Mordeo continued to rebuff his attempts to correct his previous mistakes, and stubbornly insisted on avoiding the Jedi Master whenever he could. And when he couldn’t, he was as prickly and ornery as ever. It was supremely frustrating. But now Mordeo was in a deep sleep, and couldn’t simply walk away from him. There was a possibility he could mend some of the damage he had done after all. He tapped his chin in thought. “He is more open to the influence of the Force in this state. I could… wipe those memories from him –”

“You will do _no such thing.”_ Belus’s voice was thick and low and so full of threat it made the Force vibrate all around him. 

But Heilon was also strong in the Force. He stared up at Belus, unintimidated by the near-meter difference in their height. “ But I could –”

“No.” The word itself was quiet, but it was rammed into Heilon’s head like a shout. The Force rumbled around Lord Belus, coalescing around him like dark flames and surging out to press so heavily against Heilon’s own presence in the Force he almost couldn’t breathe. Belus snarled, uncomfortably close and leaning in closer. “No. You will not force yourself and your designs on him any further, just to assuage your own guilt. You will do nothing more to him than you have already done.”

Heilon winced and took a humiliating step back, if only to take a breath of clearer air. 

“You do _nothing,_ Heilon. Keep your guilt. Suffer.” 

He couldn’t meet the fire in the Sith Lord’s eyes. The door slid open silently beside Heilon, and Lord Belus turned his back on him. 

“ _Get out of my sight.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Adrestin is trying very hard to be polite, believe it or not. Heilon's not improving much and it shows lol


End file.
